Enjoying EarthSky? Subscribe.

First-ever video of comet striking sun

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured a movie of a comet streaking directly in front of the sun and creating what looks like a splash upon impact. Watch!

NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center just released this video of what happened on July 5, 2011, when a comet swung in toward our sun and appeared to strike it.

See the comet come in from below, and see the “splash” on the right side of the screen? You can’t actually see the comet hit the sun because the impact is blocked out by the red occulting disk that lets us see the other structures in the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere. But you can get a mighty good sense of the “splash” that took place in the sun’s atmosphere, as the comet zoomed in closest. By the way, the sun’s position in this video is indicated by the white circle in the video.

Astronomers refer to comets that strike the sun as “sungrazers.” It’s thought they come so close to our star that they evaporate and disappear. However, no one has actually seen the end of that journey, before now.

This image was obtained by NASA’s SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory), which captured a 20-minute movie of the comet streaking directly in front of the sun.

NASA says scientists love this movie since it’s a “first,” and they also believe additional analysis of the data might hold more clues about the fate of the comet. Most likely, given the intense heat and radiation, the comet simply evaporated away completely.

Deborah Byrd created EarthSky as a radio series in 1991 and founded this website in 1994. Today, Byrd still blogs at EarthSky.org, helps write its popular daily Tonight series and serves as overall editor-in-chief. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and as a vital tool for the 21st century. Astrophysics, the night sky and imagining space travel remain among her most enduring lifelong passions.